Considering a spectrum of necropolitical harms: geographies of asylum in Nottingham, Calais and beyond

This thesis explores the experiences of violence for refugees and asylum seekers in Nottingham and Calais and beyond. I situate these experiences of violence in relation to Mbembe’s (2003) postcolonial theory of necropolitics. I argue that necropolitics is a suitable framework to view this violence...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Peters, Freya
Format: Thesis (University of Nottingham only)
Language:English
Published: 2024
Subjects:
Online Access:https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/79906/
Description
Summary:This thesis explores the experiences of violence for refugees and asylum seekers in Nottingham and Calais and beyond. I situate these experiences of violence in relation to Mbembe’s (2003) postcolonial theory of necropolitics. I argue that necropolitics is a suitable framework to view this violence because the experiences of refugees and asylum seekers involve harms which can be considered either outright killing or being kept “alive but in a state of injury” (Mbembe, 2003:21). These harms occur as an expression of necropower wielded by the sovereign in ways which reflect colonial power relations and hierarchical conceptions of race. I argue that there is value in considering necropolitics as a spectrum of harms which range in temporality and visibility (Mayblin, 2019a). The contribution that this thesis makes is that I argue there is a need to consider how necropolitical harms across this spectrum combine over the course of a lifetime rather than viewing them each in isolation.